Finding Her Past
by The Hermione Granger Fan Club
Summary: Ever wonder what happened to Jace and her kid Max after the episode 'Female Trouble'? This fic gives all the answers as its star, ten-year-old Max Morales travels to Seattle after her mother is kidnapped.
1. Little Max

Maxie Morales frowned and sat up in bed. It was two in the morning and she could her her mother twitching and muttering in the next room.   
  
"Mama?" she called out. She whispered to herself. "Mama's having another nightmare."   
  
Max's mother, Jace Morales, didn't seem to sleep much. Often, ten-year-old Max would run into her making herself some coffee when she needed water in the middle of the night. She could be found anywhere in the house- the strangest place had been outside in the blue chair, just looking at the stars.   
  
Thinking about it, maybe it was all that coffee that gave Jace such bad dreams.   
  
She entered her mother's room. Half her mother's blanket was on the floor and she seemed on the verge of falling out of bed. Her sleeping face was tight with fear. "I wonder what Mama dreams about that's so scary?" wondered Maxie aloud.   
  
"No..." stuttered Jace, turning her head sharply. "I want to come with you... can't move..."   
  
"Mama. Mama!" cried Max, grabbing her mother's shoulder and shaking her until she woke up. "Mama, you were having a nightmare. Are you awake?"   
  
Jace saw how concerned Max looked and struggled to give her a smile. "I'm awake, Little Max."   
  
"Are you all right?"   
  
"Yes."   
  
"Why do you always call me Little Max? I'm not little any more. It annoys me," said Maxie. She knew better than to ask her mother what she had been dreaming of. Jace never divulged much. She saw fit to tell Maxie the barest details of her past so the neighbourhood children wouldn't clamour with questions Max couldn't answer.   
  
A few years ago, Jace had sat Max down and told her who her family was. Max's father was named Victor Owen and he was a lab technician for the military. Jace had been born in Gilette, Wyoming and had lived there until she had gotten pregnant with Max. Then she had moved to Mexico with help from a childhood friend. That was basically it.   
  
Jace gave Maxie one of her grim smiles. "You're named for my little sister, Max. She lives in Seattle and used to work as a bicycle courier. She's the one who helped me get to Mexico. Just before I got onto the bus that was gonna take me away, I told her I'd name my baby Max."   
  
"Take you away," repeated Max. "From Dad?"   
  
"If you like. I feel like breakfast, do you want anything?"   
  
"Mama, it's two in the morning. Dontcha want to sleep?"   
  
"I don't sleep," kidded Jace, climbing off her bed. She shooed Maxie off and began to tidy the sheets and blanket. She tucked in the blankets tightly as a shroud and smoothed them down so much you could bounce a coin off them. Max considered briefly where her mother had learnt to make beds like that. She let it go because she didn't find it very interesting.   
  
"Neither do I," replied Maxie seriously.   
  
"Of course you sleep, Max. And that's what you're going to do, Little Max. Sleep."   
  
"Few seconds ago you wanted company, Mama."   
  
Jace gave her daughter a severe look. "Maxie Morales, you're a child like everyone else's child and right now you need sleep. I was joking about breakfast."   
  
"No school tomorrow, Mama. It's vacation, so I don't need sleep. I never need much sleep. I changed my mind; I want to stay up with you."   
  
Jace sighed. "Guess the two exceptional Morales women are going to have an early breakfast, huh?"   
  
"Sure we are," said Max.   
  
Max and her mother went into the kitchen. Jace wasn't a very good cook. One time they had been squabbling and Jace had snapped that, "I was taught other things, more important things!" What these were, Maxie didn't know. Still, Maxie liked spending time with her mother.  
  
Max considered this little sister of her mother's and wondered if they looked anything alike, Jace and Max. Lila (her best friend who lived down the street) looked very similar to her older sister, who she hero-worshipped.   
  
"Mama, tell me about when you were a little girl."   
  
"What do you want to know, Little Max?"  
  
"Where did you go to school?"   
  
"I went to a military school with my sisters and brothers. We were taught... things. Not the things you learn in school. Running, swimming... we used to stay up for days on end. Max almost never seemed to sleep. She could go days without sleeping."   
  
"And then you left and met Dada and had me?"   
  
"Yes."   
  
"Hey Mama, can I do your hair?"   
  
"You say please to adults, Max."   
  
"Please, Mama, can I do your hair?" said Max obediently.   
  
Her mother grabbed a brush off the kitchen counter and handed it to Maxie, who started brushing her hair. Max ran her finger over her mother's old tattoo meditatively and her mother twitched. "Maxie, leave my tattoo alone."   
  
"Sorry, Mama. It's a pretty weird tattoo. What made you want a barcode?"   
  
"Maxie, don't ask questions," said her mother. Jace sounded tired, defeated. It unnerved Max. Jace Morales was a fighter. She never gave up.   
  
Important things weren't secrets between Jace and Little Max. As soon as Max was old enough to understand, Jace had told her where she kept their sector passes, which she renewed regularly in case they were ever to leave suddenly. Maxie knew where Jace kept her money and papers. Jace had even given her daughter a phone number to call if ever she was in trouble and Jace wasn't around. All she had to say was, "My name is Max, I'm Jace's daughter and I'm in trouble.", give her location and Jace promised that someone who Jace trusted very much would come fetch her.   
  
In that idyllic little street, Max thought she would never get into so much trouble that she'd need to call the number. But it was only a matter of time before Max would find out how much trouble she could get into...  
  
It was approximately two days later when Maxie came home from Lila's house. She'd spent the night there and, as usual, she'd won the Who Can Stay Up All Night bet. Max was a good sport and had bought Lila and herself some chocolate with the money. She waved at Lila and then walked right through the door of the house.   
  
"Mama? Mama, are you home?" She wasn't. Max wasn't worried. Jace would always leave a note saying she was shopping or visiting a friend, or the doctor. It would say what time she expected to be back and usually ended with the words, "Don't call the number." She went into the kitchen and looked around.   
  
Everything appeared to be orderly, just the way Jace liked it. Everything was in the right compartment or drawer. Max made herself a sandwich and sat at the table. Although she admitted to Lila alone that she was curious about her father and other family members, she didn't really have any particular interest in them. Everything in Max Morales' life was made for two. There were two chairs at the table, two rooms in the house. Lila had remarked once that it reminded her of a fairy tale sort of house. Jace never had boyfriends like other single mothers, which Maxie liked very much.   
  
Max went to find a mug and make herself some tea when she spied her mother's note. She sighed in relief and picked it up. Just like usual, it had MAX written on the front. At the most, it would have MAX AND LILA written on it when Maxie had Lila staying, but the notes were always primarily intended for her.   
  
She opened it up and blinked in surprise, because Jace had written only two words. CALL IT.   
  
Call it.   
  
Call it? Well, Max would assume that meant the number, but it couldn't be. Jace had always told her daughter that the number was meant only for the direst emergencies, the kind that came along but once in a lifetime. The life-threatening kind. Surely Jace didn't mean the crisis number?   
  
One thing Max had learnt over the course of her life was to always take her mother seriously. She went to find her mother's mobile phone.   
  
Curious. It wasn't in its usual place. Max decided her mother must've taken it with her and went to the other phone.   
  
All the while, Maxie expected her mother to come bursting in the door like that time when she was seven. After an hour-long lecture about why she shouldn't call the number unless it was a complete and utter emergency, Max had waited until her mother had gone out. It had taken her fifteen minutes to psyche herself into dialling the number, just to see what would happen. Her mother had walked in and from the guilty look on Max's face, deduced that she was calling the number. She'd been grounded for three weeks.   
  
She picked up the phone and went to dial the first number, but there was nothing. Confused, Max punched in a random sequence of numbers. Someone had cut the phone line.   
  
Max was afraid. Her one backup plan was out the window in a second. She wished she hadn't spent the bet money on chocolate- now she didn't have any change.   
  
There was the payphone at the end of the street... but that had been vandalised last month.   
  
She considered going to Lila's and asking to use the phone. But she'd have to say what for. Visions of police searches and foster homes popped into Maxie's head.   
  
Max didn't want that. It made everything seem far too real.   
  
Max considered to whom she could go. It had to be someone who wouldn't ask dangerous questions, who wouldn't shove her into care and who would understand and keep her safe until her mother came to get her.   
  
Jace's voice flickered momentarily in Maxie's head. "You're named for my little sister, Max. She lives in Seattle and she worked as a bicycle courier. She's the one who helped me get to Mexico..."   
  
She'd mentioned more than one sibling in that late-night conversation, but this Max was the only one who'd been named. They must have been pretty close if Jace named her first and only child after her.   
  
"Sorry Mama," she muttered. "I can't stay here by myself..."   
  
Max knew she was more than capable of taking care of herself. She only slept a few hours a night and was stronger than any other girl of her age that she knew, although she tried to hide that from her mother. But soon the neighbours would start talking like they always did. How often did they discuss the fact that Max hadn't any present father? Plus the money would soon run out...  
  
There was nothing for it. She'd have to leave right away.   
  
Max dressed in her most sturdy jeans, the ones someone had sent to her mother for her years ago. They were a little short in the ankle, but it couldn't be helped. She found her mother's papers and sector passes and the money in the space behind that old black and white photograph of WW2 soldiers that Jace had hanging in her room. Maxie found a sweatshirt of her mother's and pulled it on over her t-shirt.   
  
She felt slightly ridiculous doing all this preparing, as if her mother was going to walk in the door at any second. But then again, she told herself- her mother never would have instructed her to call the number unless it was a huge emergency.   
  
Max found her school backpack and put in some clothes, the papers, money, sector pass for one MAX MORALES and a large map of the United States. Her mind was yelling at her.   
  
What's the map for? You're not gonna walk across the States, are you? You're a crazy idiot, Max Morales. Any second now Mama's going to come home and yell herself stupid at you for filching her things and you're gonna get into soooo much trouble!  
  
"Shut up," said Max fiercely to the empty house. She often got worked up like this before she did something important.   
  
After much deliberation, Max managed to put in a picture of Jace and three sandwiches. Finally, she wrote out a note to her mother.   
  
"Dear Mama," she read aloud as she wrote. "I found your note about calling the number, unfortunately the phone is not working. I can't stay with Lila or one of the neighbours because they'll ask too many questions, so I have taken my sector pass, the travel papers, some money for travelling and one of your sweatshirts. I am going to go to Seattle to stay with your sister Max. If I run into trouble along the way I'll call the crisis number. Please don't be mad. When I get to Aunt Max's place I will call you. Don't worry, I will be more than fine and I'll not take any stupid risks. I hope you are safe and you have my love. Your Daughter, Max Morales."   
  
She read it over one last time. Yes, it read well. She hoped it didn't sound too much like she was begging Jace not to kill her for running away.   
  
Max took all the keys she could find in case anyone got into the house while she was away. She locked everything up and stood outside for a moment, wondering why she didn't feel more afraid.   
  
"Mama," she said quietly. "Mama, I'm giving you one more chance to walk through the gate before I leave."   
  
Nothing. Max Morales hitched up her bag and left.   
  
* * *  
  
DISCLAIMER: 'Dark Angel' belongs to Fox and James Cameron. Not me. So don't sue. 


	2. The Journey

Max walked for a very long time, all the while wondering where Jace was. What had happened to the phone? Why hadn't she explained where she had gone in the note? There was but the concise instruction that had proved completely useless. And now there she was, walking along the highway. Hitchhiking.   
  
A truck was slowing down. Max grinned in triumph as it halted beside her. The man driving it looked down at her and then went to keep driving.   
  
"Hey-" began Max, but he pulled away. "HEY!" she yelled, and started running. Maxie could run very, very quickly for someone her age, faster than most of the adults she knew. Well, all of them. Except for Jace.   
  
The man looked at her in shock as she sprinted easily next to the truck, thumping on the window with her fist. He pulled over. "What do you want?" he asked her uneasily.   
  
"A ride. As far toward Seattle as you can take me. I'll even pay you."   
  
"Seattle? No deal, little girl. I don't give rides to runaways."   
  
"I'm not running away from someone, I'm running to someone. My aunt in Seattle. She's the only person who will take care of me."   
  
Or at least Max hoped that her Aunt Max would want to take care of her.   
  
"Sorry, little girl. I'm going to Los Angeles, but I can't take you. I'll get arrested for abduction."  
  
"But I need to find my aunt! She's the only family I have!"  
  
"You find someone who cares," the driver sneered, and the truck pulled away.   
  
All the way to Los Angeles for free! No way was Max missing out on this opportunity. She glared after the truck for a moment and then started running after it. Max built up speed, careful not to run into anywhere she could be seen in the rear view mirror.   
  
And all in a second, Maxie took a running jump. It was a slightly ungainly, clumsy jump but it got her into the flatbed of the truck with the minimum amount of noise. She hugged her knees as the truck took her further away from her home and deeper into the unknown.   
  
The lights of the stars and of the passing traffic blurred together as Max gave into fear and fatigue. She slept.   
  
The next thing Max knew was that it was morning and quite a few people were standing around, looking at her in shock, including the crabby driver and a few other drivers. She was woken quite abruptly by someone smacking her over the head with the back of their hand.   
  
"That creepy little kid wanted a ride last night!" the driver was raging. "I said no!"   
  
"How the hell did she manage to get into the back, then?" someone whispered.   
  
"Are you all right, dear?" a woman asked in concern.   
  
"Out you come!" Two men grabbed her arms and dragged out out of the back of the truck. With incredible strength, Max yanked her arms out of their grasp and backed away.   
  
She appeared to be in a parking lot. Max had excellent eyesight and could see a gate quite clearly, all the way at the other end of the lot.   
  
Max grinned embarrassedly.   
  
"Thanks for the ride!" she yelled, and ran. Everyone else seemed to be moving in slow motion but Maxie was moving faster than she'd ever moved in her life. In seconds she was at the gate.   
  
She rattled it and gave a yowl of annoyance, letting out some of her energy. She had boundless energy when she needed it. Max scaled the high fence and leaped over the other side, inspecting her surroundings.   
  
Max appeared to be standing by a road with a lot of cars going past. On the other side she could see some run-down homes and buildings.   
  
She checked her watch. It was eight-thirty exactly.   
  
Maxie was across the road in seconds. She briefly considered calling the crisis number, but she wasn't really in crisis.   
  
She changed her clothes in a public bathroom. Max didn'y have any toothpaste, so the best she could do was to wash her mouth out with water. Some women with cigarettes watched her curiously as she shouldered her bag and left.   
  
So this was Los Angeles. Lila had been here once, to visit an aunt- much like Max was doing, although she had a very long way to go until she reached Seattle.   
  
She found a bench and sat there, smiling. Feeling very pleased with herself, Maxie ate one of her sandwiches and inspected her map.   
  
Max decided to go along the coast. No more hitchhiking- too risky. Word would travel, people would begin to recognise her. She could walk along the highway and take buses at night.   
  
"I'm going to get outta Los Angeles, on to San Francisco. Through Portland and then to Seattle."   
  
Four hours of walking later, Max thought she'd made it sound far too easy. She seemed to be getting nowhere. It was noon. She was hot, far too hot and hungry, but she didn't dare eat another sandwich. All the American money Jace had had was in hundred-dollar denominations. How would she explain the fact that she had so much money?  
  
Nights and days blurred into each other like the lights on the highway. Max spent her lonely nights sitting in almost empty buses or hitchhiking. One guy had started talking in a very creepy way. When she'd asked him to stop the car he hadn't listened, so Maxie had followed her first instinct and made a fist. She hit him hard in the side of the head, so hard he went sideways even with his seatbelt buckled and smacked the other side of his head on the window.   
  
The car skidded across a wet road. Stunned, he'd managed to hit the brakes. Max had grabbed her backpack, opened the door and fled through night streets in terror. Mothers always talked about getting abducted by bad men and getting in car accidents, so it was awful to have to experience both these things in a matter of minutes.  
  
Max sat finally, sniffling through a mild cold, in a seat a few rows behind the driver of the bus. An hour or two and they'd reach Seattle. She hadn't slept in three days, just ran or walked or shivered in doorways. Rain pounded against the windows. Finally, she was nearly there.   
  
"So," called the driver, a woman. "What's your name?"   
  
She was pretty old. Max guessed about late forties. Max gave herself a little hug. "Max. My name is Max."  
  
"You meeting someone at the bus station, Max?"   
  
"I'm going to walk to my aunt's workplace and wait for her there."   
  
"It's pretty late. Maybe you should call your aunt and have her meet you at the bus station."   
  
"I've never met my aunt before. I want to make a good impression and not wake her up in the night."   
  
"Travelling alone, eh? Where from?"  
  
"Nearby Hermosallo."   
  
"I could get you a place to spend the night with some nice people who could give you a cab fare to your Aunt's house."   
  
"That's kind, ma'am, but I don't want to impose." Jace told her daughter at a young age to address women as 'ma'am' unless they told her otherwise. "That's what I was taught," she'd told told her little girl.   
  
"It's no trouble. I'm supposed to look out for children using the bus lines alone."   
  
Max decided to play along. "Yeah, I guess," she said, skating warily around the question.   
  
She took her mother's picture out of her pocket. Max missed her mother terribly, wanted nothing more than to be at home instead of travelling to visit an aunt she'd never met before. "I'm OK, Mama," she whispered to the picture. She whispered it so softly all she herself could make out was the movement of her lips and a noise that sounded like a sigh.   
  
The bus pulled into the Seattle bus station, nearby the very place where Jace had boarded the bus to Mexico ten years ago, although there was no way for Maxie to know that. She showed her sector pass and papers to the man behind the desk after twenty minutes standing in line and was just about to leave when she felt someone grab her shoulder.   
  
Max yelped and whipped around, ready to throw one of her killer punches but saw it was only the bus driver and relaxed. Sort of.   
  
"What do you want?" she demanded, tense.   
  
"Hey, don't hurt me!" kidded the driver. "Remember? I'm going to call some nice people who'll give you a bed for the night."   
  
The driver steered Max over to a payphone and told her told wait while she called. Unhappily, Max kicked at the gravel. She wasn't dumb. Max Morales knew what this meant- social workers. A children's home.   
  
She hung around a few minutes and then crept away, out of the bus station and into Seattle.   
  
It was worse than Los Angeles. At least she'd arrived in LA in high spirits and the daytime, but now she stood in a dark street. It looked like it was going to start raining again any minute. Who'd want to live in a place like this?   
  
Max took a deep breath and went to find somewhere to hide for the rest of the night. Nobody would be answering their phone that late. The only thing to do right then- the only thing Maxie wanted to do- was sleep.   
  
The first place she saw with a lot of light was a bar a while away. She'd changed one of her bills for ten-dollar denominations, so she went inside, grateful for dry and warmth and company.   
  
Granted, it wasn't much company. There were a table of women laughing loudly and smoking cigarettes in the corner, a few men up at the bar nearly passed out, some teenagers playing pool and some shifty-looking younger teenagers skulking in the water.   
  
"You're up late," remarked a loud sort of woman wearing too much makeup as she came to get another pitcher for her friends.   
  
"So are you," shot back Max. She didn't need this. She was hungry, cold, lonely and nervous.   
  
The woman sniffed in contempt, paid for the pitcher and went back to the table.   
  
"Anything for you, kid?" said the bartender in a gravelly voice.   
  
"Got anything with chocolate in it?" asked Max, half-interested.   
  
He snickered and Max felt stupid. "Nope."   
  
"Fine, get me a Coke or something please, sir."   
  
"Or something?" he repeated.   
  
"Surprise me," she said in clipped tones, and he went to get her drink.   
  
She sat there for hours. The women left, some more teenagers entered. One tried to talk to her, make fun of her, "Where's your mommy, kid?"  
  
This had annoyed Max greatly. "Don't. Mess. With. Me."   
  
The sun rose over Seattle. Max had left the bar and walked for twenty minutes until she found a working, unoccupied payphone. She lifted one of the grubby phonebooks off the floor effortlessly and looked up Bicycle Couriers.   
  
The first name she had found was Reliable Runs By Day. She dialled it.   
  
"Hello?" a woman on the other end of the line had said boredly.   
  
"My name is Max, may I please speak to Max?"   
  
"Look, kid, just piss off, OK? I hate prank phone calls!" the woman seethed, hanging up abruptly.   
  
It took five calls before she found a messanger service with an employee named Max.   
  
"OK, hang on, I'll get 'em," said the man on the other end of the line. "Hey Norton, got a kid on the line who wants to talk to you!"   
  
Norton?  
  
"Norton Maxwood, who's this?" a man had answered.   
  
"Norton? The guy on the phone said your name was Max," asked Maxie in confusion.   
  
"Oh, that's my nickname. You know, Max. Maxwood. Did you want to talk to me?"   
  
"You're not the Max I need," said Max glumly. She hung up.   
  
Three calls later, to a place called Jam Pony, she talked with a man named Mr Ronald.   
  
"Jam Pony, Ride With Pride, Mr Ronald speaking."   
  
"Um, hi. Do you have an employee named Max working at Jam Pony?"   
  
"Which Max?" Max's heart leaped.   
  
"Max Morales."   
  
"Sorry, there's nobody called Max Morales working here."   
  
"Max Morales the First?" she asked desperately.   
  
Mr Ronald sighed. "Want to tell me a little more about this Max Morales of yours?"   
  
"Uh, well, she has a big sister named Jace Morales who lives in Mexico. She's my aunt. I'm named after her."   
  
There was the sound of papers being shuffled. "Closest I can give you is a Max Guevara who used to work here."   
  
"Did she have a sister named Jace?"   
  
"She had no family. No parents, brothers or sisters or relatives of any kind."   
  
"I guess I've got the wrong number, then. The Max I'm looking for had an older sister named Jace."   
  
There was a pause.   
  
"Sir?"   
  
"Yes?"   
  
"Could I have her number anyhow? This is the first Max I've found who could be the one I need to contact."   
  
"I'm sorry, little girl, but I don't give out employee or former employee phone numbers over the phone."   
  
"Please? I- I've come all the way from Mexico to stay with my aunt, but I don't know where she lives or her number or anything. Can't you ask someone? There's gotta be someone there who knows my Aunt Max's address. Please, sir!"  
  
A different voice, a woman's voice seemed to float out of nowhere on the other end of the phone. "Normal, you gotta kid beggin' you for something? Sad world when Seattle's kids gotta turn to Normal Ronald for their problems."   
  
"Thank you, Cindy, for your insight, now I have a hot run to 458 Daley Avenue with your name on it. Bip, bip, bip, back to work, people!"  
  
Frustrated, Max hung up the phone. She pulled a pen out of her pocket and scribbled down Jam Pony's address on her arm.   
  
It took a lot of directions from complete strangers and a lot of patience on Max's part, but she found herself looking shyly into Jam Pony during the peak of the morning runs for the employees.   
  
She shuffled inside feeling terribly awkward and looked around. There were a lot of tough, trendy adults hanging around and talking around graffitiied lockers. Max made her way over to the front desk, where a few of the riders were having an argument with the man behind the desk- this must be the guy she'd spoken to on the phone.  
  
Max had an idea. She tugged on a tattooed woman's sleeve and said, faking a lisp. "'Thcuse me, ma'am, but there's a man thmoking in the men'th room."   
  
She laughed loudly as if this was something fantastic. "Hey Normal!" she yelled, eyes dancing. "Kid over here says some guy's smokin' in the men's!"  
  
"What? If it's Herbal again-" He darted toward the nearest door, presumably the men's room.   
  
Maxie wasted no time. She darted behind the dounter and opened a file cabinet marked PAST EMPLOYEES.   
  
"Mabbie- Martin- Maya... hang on, that's too far." She flipped back a few files until she found one with MAX GUEVARA written neatly on a bright tag.   
  
Max yanked out the file and flipped through the papers, scanning them and committing the relevant information to memory. Maxie had a very good memory.   
  
Max never questioned her abilities. She knew she wasn't exactly normal- she did extremely well in school, ran faster, jumped higher and breathed less than most human beings. Except her mother. So she had decided long ago it was simply something about her mother's family that allowed them to be so, as her mother always put it, exceptional. She wondered whether Max the First was exceptional too.   
  
"Hey, there's nobody in the men's room!" yelled Mr Ronald. Max froze. "Who the firetruck's idea of a joke is this?"   
  
"That's my cue," said Max with a brief smile. She ran for it.   
  
Using a ten from her pocket, she bought herself a burger in a greasy little shop and thought about her aunt. Would she be kind? Would she want to help her?  
  
Max felt very lonely all of a sudden as she finished her burger. It started to rain as she left the burger joint and headed toward the part of town where this Max Guevara lived.   
  
She began to suspect that someone was following her about two streets from her aunt's address. Maxie looked behind her.   
  
Nope. Just two girls about her age in raincoats, running home and shrieking with laughter. They rounded the corner and disappeared.  
  
Dark clouds rolled across the sky and rain poured. Max was soaked to the skin and shivered uncontrollably, snuffling. A Jam Pony rider chose that exact moment to ride past, spraying her with icy, dirty water.   
  
She sneezed and hitched up her backpack. "Guess I deserve it for g-g-going through their records..." she stuttered.   
  
The street was deserted.   
  
All in a second, two men darted out from the nearest alley. She screamed as one grabbed her around the neck and dragged her backwards. The other hit her so hard in the side of the head she felt like she'd been hit over the head with a brick.   
  
"Hey, kid. You had a lot of money at the burger place, huh? Let's see how much you've really got," snarled one.   
  
"Scream and the only way you're ever gonna see your mommy again is in a body bag," hissed the other.   
  
Max pulled out of their grasp, ducking under their arms. She held up her fists in as menacing a way as she could manage. Max had plenty of power in her fists and feet, but no real training or discipline. Maybe, if she kept bluffing...?  
  
They laughed and went for her again. Blindly, head throbbing, she jumped high into the air and hung one-handed from a windowsill.   
  
They started throwing bits of gravel and pieces of trash at her. The gravel glanced off her arms and ankles, biting at her freezing skin.   
  
"Leave me alone!" she wailed in a voice that was unnaturally high. "Leave me alone and I'l give you all the money I've got!"  
  
Incredibly, Max managed to delve into her pocket and find some ten and hundred-dollar bills. She tossed them down. They whirled in the wind, weighed down by the rain and came to a rest in the muddy water swirling around the muggers' feet  
  
"Anything else?"   
  
"I-I-"   
  
One hurled a tin can at her. It bounced off her eyebrow, cutting her. Using the one hand, she managed to take her backpack off, switching hands halfway through. Maxie brought her knees up, rested the back pack on them and searched for more money, anything to make those freaks go away.   
  
The backpack fell and one of the muggers took it. "Hey... give that back to me!" shrieked Max.   
  
The muggers ran off with it. After a few seconds Max let herself fall. Her money, papers, clothes, map and her only photo of Jace had been in that bag.   
  
She began to walk, practically dragging herself through the streets. She had no idea how long she'd been walking but somehow she found herself where she'd wanted to be for what seemed like thousands of years. Her aunt's doorstep.   
  
She braced herself against the doorframe with one hand and rang the doorbell with the other. After a few minutes, the door creaked open.   
  
A woman in her late twenties stood there. She was pretty, very pretty but she didn't look anything like Jace. They couldn't have been sisters.   
  
Max was too tired and in pain to have her brain process this.   
  
"Hello," said the woman, giving her a peculiar look.  
  
"Are- are you Max? Max Guevara? The Max Guevara who used to work at Jam Pony?" asked Maxie, her breath coming sharply.   
  
"Yes." Max Guevara said this in exactly the short, no-nonsense, don't-ask-any-more-questions way that her mother did.   
  
"Do you have a big sister named Jace?"   
  
The woman in the doorway put her hands on her hips. "Who wants to know?" she asked suspiciously.   
  
Little Max didn't know how she was meant to say, "I'm your long-lost niece." She just gazed at the woman.   
  
Max Guevara was starting to look concerned. "Are you bleeding?" she asked suddenly, stepping toward Maxie.   
  
The whole hallway seemed to start spinning around Maxie, slowly at first and then faster and faster. Everything was growing dark and blurry at the corners.  
  
Max's aunt was reaching out to inspect the cut above Maxie's eyebrow. Little Max suddenly ducked. Her aunt looked surprised. "Hey, what are you-"  
  
Max took a deep breath and managed to blurt out what her mother had always said to say. "M-My name is Max Morales. I'm Jace's daughter and I'm in trouble. I came here from Mexico because my mother went missing. You're the only family I have."   
  
Everything seemed to fall apart and go black as Max Morales' knees buckled under her and she fainted.   
  
* * *  
  
DISCLAIMER: 'Dark Angel' belongs to Fox and James Cameron. Not me. So don't sue.   
  
NOTE: I apologise for any geographical errors I might have made in this chapter. I don't live anywhere near the US and I got all my geographical information from a map of the United States that I found on Google Image Search. 


	3. Unanswered Questions

Groggily, Maxie opened her eyes. She was lying on a couch inside someone's apartment. Max jolted, panicked and sat up- before her head fell down yet again.   
  
She could hear someone on the phone in the next room. "C'mon, Logan, please be there- damn! OK, listen. I got a kid here passed out in my living room claiming that she's Jace's daughter and that her mother's gone missing. I need you to investigate anyone who might have abducted Jace. And hurry."   
  
Max's aunt hung up. She walked into the room and saw that Maxie was conscious. "Hey, you're awake. Well- I guess I should... uh..." Aunt Max folded her arms, gazing perplexedly at her niece.   
  
"I-I apologise for imposing on you, Aunt Max, ma'am," said Max. She'd never had any family apart from her mother and wasn't quite sure how to act.   
  
"Aunt Max, huh? I kinda like that. But cut the ma'am, kid, we're family." She came to sit next to Little Max. "I washed your cut. Nasty. What'd you do, run into some barbed wire?"   
  
"You're really my Aunt Max? You don't look related to my mother."   
  
"Let's just say we're sisters in everything except parentage. Now, what about that cut?"   
  
Max took a deep breath. "Two men tried to beat me up and take my money when I was coming over here. They stole my money and my bag and my papers..." She realised her voice was rising and growing shrill and shaky, a sure sign she was on the verge of crying.   
  
The two Maxs sat in silence for a second, Little Max trying to hide the fact that tears were welling up in her eyes. To her surprise Aunt Max put her arm around her shoulder. Nobody ever took to her this quickly. Usually they'd seen her run, or jump, or correctly add seventeen eight-digit numbers inside her head without really trying and dubbed her a freak.   
  
"It's OK. You're not alone any more. I'm going to help you."   
  
"I'm not crying."   
  
"Who said you were?"  
  
They sat there for a second. "I guess what I should ask you is what happened?"   
  
"I came home from spending the night at my friend's house. Mama wasn't there. She left a note for me to call a number that would bring people to the house who'd look after me. But the phone wasn't working."   
  
"How'd you come to the conclusion that you needed to travel to Seattle from- where were you living with Jace?"   
  
"Nearby Hermosallo. You see, Mama just tells me enough about her family and her past so that the neighbours won't ask questions. Recently she said that she had a little sister named Max who lived in Seattle and worked as a bike courier. I had to walk a lot. And hitchhike. And take buses. Mama always told me where she put our money and papers and passes, so I decided she would have wanted me to come here. It took a long time. All the money Mama had was in hundred-dollar denominations, so I couldn't spend a lot in case people asked where I got it. I found where you used to work in the phone book last night and went there to get your address. That's it."   
  
"What about your daddy? Friend of mine tracked him down years ago, told him where you and Jace were living."   
  
"No... Victor never came to see us. At least, I never saw him. Mama doesn't date."  
  
Max sighed. "So what does my sister tell you about her family?"  
  
"She mentioned you... she says she was born in Wyoming and she went to military school there. Then she grew up and left and met my father and went to Mexico and had me. That's it, basically. I have a question..."   
  
"What?"   
  
"If you're sisters, how come you have different last names?"   
  
"Different mothers."  
  
"Oh... same father, then?"  
  
"No father. All your mother's family, we've all got different last names."   
  
"Really? How many of you are there?"   
  
"Lots of us are dead in the war on transgenics- you would have been a little baby then."   
  
"I heard about transgenics in and around Seattle when I was little. There were more transgenic scares when I started school, and again a few years ago. But what does that have to do with you and Mama's family?"  
  
Aunt Max stood up. "Do you have any clothes?"  
  
"Just the ones I'm wearing. I had more, but those bad men stole them."  
  
"What did they look like exactly?"  
  
"One wore a denim jacket and a red hat. The other was tall and skinny and bald. He had sharp teeth."   
  
"Transgenic?" asked Aunt Max in concern.   
  
"Nope, just sharp teeth. They were pretty gross."   
  
Maxie's aunt laughed. "Well, I guess you can borrow one of my shirts to sleep in tonight."  
  
"I'm allowed to stay?"  
  
"Sure. I've got a friend of mine on tracking down my sister... I've got connections. I can call people up."   
  
"That's very kind of you," said Max.  
  
"I should go and call some people. Um, bathroom's in the next room, kitchen's on the right. You want a drink or something? Anything to eat?"  
  
Maxie smiled at how nervous her aunt was.   
  
"How many nieces and nephews do you have, Aunt Max?"  
  
"Just my nephew Case. He lives in Canada with his dad. I contact him as often as I can, but I haven't seen him in person since he was little. You could say I'm a little rusty with big kids."  
  
Max giggled. "I'm only ten, Aunt Max."   
  
"Ten, huh? Time flies. Last time I heard about you you weren't even born."  
  
Aunt Max sauntered into the other room and started dialling telephone numbers.   
  
Little Max stood up and began walking around the living room. Maxie made very little noise when she moved. She could sneak up on anyone.  
  
She decided to eavesdrop on her aunt while she was on the phone. Aunt Max seemed to talk to herself more than anyone when she was telephoning people.   
  
"Alec- damn! Alec WOULD have no answering machine. Aiight, I'll call Syl." She dialled a number and started talking. "Syl! I can't believe you're there, no-one else is answering their phone. What? Syl, forget going to that club tonight. We have a situation. I've got Jace's daughter here and- yes, Syl, Jace had a daughter. She's ten and she came from Mexico because her mother's gone missing. You got any news of anyone looking for X5 technology?"  
  
There was a pause.   
  
"Syl, think. Foreign military, maybe? Like with Brin, remember?"  
  
Another pause.   
  
"OK, that's good. Can you scope it out tonight? Yes, Syl, you can bring Krit. And I apologise for ruining your evening. Yes. Mmm-hmm. Can you drop by afterwards? No? Oh. You mean- thanks, Syl. I appreciate it. So remember, you and Krit come by and- yes. Uh-huh. OK. Peace out." She hung up the phone.   
  
She turned around, bumping into Little Max. "Who's Syl and Krit and Alec and Brin?"  
  
"My sisters and brothers. Didn't your mother tell you it's not nice to eavesdrop on people when they're on the phone?"   
  
"Yes, many times. Mama is very much for politeness and respect to those who outrank you."  
  
Max raised her eyebrows. "Like who?"  
  
"Adults. Relatives. Teachers. Politicians. Sector police."  
  
"Figures. You can take the girl out of Manticore, but you can't take Manticore out of the girl."  
  
"What's Manticore?"  
  
"Our military school. Syl, Brin and Krit were there too."  
  
"What about Alec?"  
  
"Oh, he wasn't in our class. His twin brother Ben was."  
  
"Am I going to meet Ben, Aunt Max?"  
  
Max sighed and looked away. "I don't like to talk about Ben."  
  
Maxie bit at her lip. "I am sorry if I have offended you, Aunt Max. Do you want me to get you something?"  
  
Max looked at her niece and managed to giggle. "You don't even know your way around this place, how are you going to get me anything?"  
  
"I learn fast."  
  
Aunt Max ushered Little Max into the kitchen. "How fast exactly?"  
  
"I get very good marks. I should have skipped two grades."  
  
"Really. Clever girl. But let me guess, your mother thought it would be best if you didn't?"  
  
"It was Mama's and my decision, actually. I wanted to stay with Lila and Mama thought the bigger children would tease me. I'm given different work to the other children, but I learn in the same classroom."   
  
Aunt Max had begun to make herself some coffee. "What do you want to drink, kid?"  
  
"Can I have some of that... please," she said, remembering herself.   
  
"Your mother lets you drink coffee?"  
  
"No, but I always wanted to because she drinks so much of it herself and I wanted to find out what was so great about it."  
  
"I'm guessing Jace doesn't sleep much."  
  
"No, not from all that coffee. Do you want to know a secret, Aunt Max?"  
  
"Sure." Aunt Max turned around to look at Maxie, who'd taken a seat at the table.   
  
"I don't sleep as much as I should but I never drink coffee. I drink tea and chocolate milk, though."  
  
"Oh, don't worry about that. None of your mother's family sleeps a lot. I can stay up for weeks on end without even yawning, that's why I have such a great nightlife." Max laughed nervously.   
  
"You're lying to me, Aunt."  
  
"How do you figure?"  
  
"Well, I thought it was pretty weird that I can stay up for four or five days at a time, but you'd break down from exhaustion if you didn't sleep for weeks on end. It's not humanly possible," Maxie said sternly.   
  
"You come from a very exceptional family, Max Morales. We have incredible abilities."   
  
Max found this to be a very odd thing to say but let it go. She grinned at her aunt. "That's what my mama says, Aunt Max. She always calls us the two exceptional Morales women." She stopped smiling. "Aunt Max, I miss her. Why would anyone want to take my mother? She never broke the law or anything. She's always so nice to me and my friends."  
  
"Well, I've got my friends on the case. Here, have some coffee."  
  
"Thank you, Aunt Max." Max took an experimental sip. "It's not bad. Did Mama used to like coffee when she was a little girl?"  
  
"We weren't allowed to drink coffee or tea or chocolate milk at military school."  
  
"What did you drink, then?"  
  
"Water. Milk, sometimes. It had a lot of vitamins and artificial things put in it to hype us up and make us strong. We could actually taste them. They were dis-gust-ing. Each of us was on a special diet of vitamins that got modified as we got older. Once your Uncle Zane tried to trade with Krit and Jace told on him. They got punished really badly because both of their vitamin diets had gotten screwed with."  
  
"What did they make him do?" Maxie's eyes were wide. She never knew you had vitamin diets at military school.   
  
"They made them wash up everyone's plates all by themselves, and then they had to sort out everyone's vitamins for the dosage we got before bedtime- or maybe we had a night lecture that night, I can't remember, and then they had to clean everyone's gun, and then-"  
  
"You had GUNS at military school? Little children really got to play with guns?"  
  
"Well, I wouldn't call it playing. Damn, this stuff is strong. Where does Original Cindy get this coffee?" Aunt Max was trying to change the subject.   
  
"Is Cindy another sister?"  
  
"OC is my roommate. She's my homegirl."  
  
Little Max raised her eyebrows.   
  
"My best friend," she explained.   
  
"Oh, right. Tell me more about military school, Aunt Max. Mama says you were taught running and swimming and things like that."  
  
"I think I've told you too much already."  
  
"Please?" begged Little Max. "I'll do housework and run errands and I'll be very polite to your friend Original Cindy."  
  
"I thought you were polite to everyone?"  
  
"I am. But I'll be really, really polite if you tell me more about Manticore Military School."  
  
"What do you want to know?"  
  
"What were the teachers like? And who was the boss person?"  
  
"You can get Jace to tell you when we get her back. You finished with that coffee?"  
  
"Not yet. Hey, is that why the military wants you all?"  
  
Aunt Max froze. "What did you hear?"  
  
"Well, you were saying to your sister Syl that the foreign military might have taken her like they had your sister Brin. Do they abduct girls who used to go to Manticore Military School?"   
  
"Sometimes," Aunt Max said. "Because we're genetically hyped-up."  
  
"You mean the vitamins?"  
  
"Yes. Yes, I mean the vitamins. And we're all very well-trained and intelligent. Exceptional, like Jace says to you. Any self-respecting foreign military would kill to have one of us in its ranks."  
  
"What are you trained to do?"  
  
"Fight."   
  
"Not to sound mean, but didn't they teach you anything else? I-I'm not saying you sound stupid or something like that."  
  
"They did teach us how to read and write and count. And all the usual things, like how to tie our shoelaces."  
  
"Couldn't your relatives teach you how to tie your shoelaces? How old were you when you went to military school?"  
  
"No, our relatives couldn't teach us." She looked a but far away at that point. "I bet we were the only little kids in the world who had a coupla shots fired into the wall if we didn't tie our laces right..."  
  
Aunt Max realised that Little Max's mouth was slightly open. "Uh, yeah," said Aunt Max.   
  
Suddenly, the front door opened. "I'm home!"   
  
"Hey, boo," called Aunt Max. A woman wearing very bright clothes and pushing a bike walked into the kitchen.   
  
"You get a new roommate while I was at work, suga?" she said, surveying Maxie, who suddenly felt horribly shy.   
  
"This is my niece. You know, Jace's kid? From Mexico."  
  
Original Cindy nodded. "I remember Jace. She stayed with us for that one afternoon. She was fine. What's yo' name, boo?"  
  
"My name is Max Morales, Miss Original Cindy, ma'am. Like I said to her," she said politely, pointing at Aunt Max, "I'm sorry for coming here without asking first but my mama went away."  
  
Aunt Max and Original Cindy looked at each other for a second and then burst out laughing.   
  
Hours went by. Aunt Max and her friend were quite kind to Maxie. They were different kinds of women to the mothers in the street back home, who gossipped and said mean things about Max's lack of a father. They laughed about things and had their own slang like the big girls at the high school.   
  
Max wondered why everyone skated around her questions. What was so terrible about the military school that nobody would talk about it?   
  
* * *   
  
DISCLAIMER: 'Dark Angel' belongs to Fox and James Cameron. Not me. So don't sue.   
  
NOTE: Once again, I'm apologising. I write a terrible Max Guevara and a worse Original Cindy. 


	4. Into The Unknown

It was late. Original Cindy had gone out to some place called Crash an hour or so ago, and had invited them both along, joking that they could sneak Little Max inside if they covered her face, but Aunt Max had said they were waiting for someone to come by, so OC had left.   
  
Little Max sat on the couch, leafing through some old magazines. They had most of the pictures cut out. Aunt Max had fished them out, saying that she liked to cut out pictures from magazines as a young teenager because it was what normal girls did. Maxie liked reading the articles more than looking at the pictures, but she politely sat looking at them while Aunt Max took a shower.   
  
"What're you looking at, kid?" asked a voice over her shoulder with interest.   
  
Maxie shrieked and jumped, whirling around because the owner of the voice had entered the room without making any noise. It was a woman around Aunt Max's age, with blonde hair and pretty eyes.   
  
"Who are you?" Little Max asked, frightened.   
  
"Is that any way to talk to one of your many aunts?" said the woman teasingly, folding her arms in front of her.   
  
"Are you Syl?" asked Max.   
  
"Damn straight I am. Krit, where are you?"  
  
A male voice called from the kitchen. "In here. I'm hungry."  
  
"He always is," said Syl to Little Max, smiling.   
  
"That- that was incredible. How did you do that?" babbled Little Max.   
  
"Do what?"   
  
"Come right up behind me without making any noise. Only my mama can do that- oh. Is it a family thing, Aunt Syl, ma'am?"  
  
Syl raised an eyebrow. "If you like. So. You're Jace's daughter?"  
  
"Yes, I am ten years old."  
  
"What's your name?"  
  
"Max Morales."   
  
"Quiet, aren't you? Do you ever talk if you're not asked a question?"  
  
"I'm supposed to be polite to adults, Aunt Syl. Mama says."  
  
Syl grinned. "Typical Jace. At least she's been out of Manticore ten years."  
  
"Your military school, right? Aunt Max said you and, um, Uncle Krit were in her class with Aunt Brin and Uncle Ben," said Max, pleased that she remembered the name of every sibling. Still, it was very odd to have to refer to all these people she'd never heard of as her aunt and uncles.   
  
Syl looked nonplussed. "I... guess so. Krit, get in here. You can stop stuffing your face now. Our little sister Max has gotta eat too, you know."   
  
"Max can get more," said Krit, walking into the living room and spotting Little Max on the couch. "Hey, you are...?"  
  
"Max Morales, Uncle Krit, sir," answered Maxie. She remembered then to get up out of her seat like her mama had told her to, when adults she didn't know entered the room. She waved shyly.   
  
Krit put an arm around Syl's shoulders. "This is Jace's kid? I can tell. She salute you when you walked into the room, Syl?"  
  
Max didn't much like the way they made jokes about her mother like she wasn't even present. She said evenly, "Was my mama a good soldier at Manticore Military School?"  
  
Krit laughed, but not nastily. "You ever meet our brother Ben, Max? He was always talking about good soldiers too. I remember-"   
  
"Don't speak ill of the dead, Krit," said Aunt Max in as stern a voice as Maxie had heard her use, walking into the room. She was fully dressed, but her hair was wet.   
  
Krit sat down next to Little Max and continued chatting with her like he'd known her all his life. "So, you inherit any of our little problems?"  
  
"Problems?"  
  
"Yeah. Seizures or-"  
  
"Krit, shut up," said both the women, smacking him upside the head.   
  
He shut up.   
  
"What did you find out, Syl?" asked Max.   
  
"Well, Krit and I swung by the airfield to find information on things being flown out of the country. Nada. There's nothing that sounds like it could be a cover for abducting Jace. So that's why we need to ask you- can you think of any enemies Jace had?"  
  
She was talking to Little Max, who thought hard. "Mama didn't have many great friends. Yet she never mentioned enemies. Do you think that Manticore Military School abducted her?"  
  
The three adults exchanged looks over Little Max's head.   
  
"No..." said Aunt Max thoughtfully. "Not Manticore... we took them down years ago, when you were just a baby. It's gotta be someone who's gotten wind of the X5 project."  
  
"We'd better be careful," said Krit seriously. "If they're powerful enough to take down an X5-"  
  
"They could have killed her," mused Syl. "It's a possibility. Dead or alive, her genetic code is completely unique. Then she wouldn't have been any trouble."  
  
Little Max's jaw dropped. "Someone could have killed my mama?" she asked shrilly.   
  
Aunt Max gave Aunt Syl a not-in-front-of-the-kid look and sat down next to Maxie. "Max, don't panic."  
  
"No!" yelled Max. "I want you to tell me right now- why would anyone want to kill my mother?"  
  
"I don't think it's... Max, I think you should go to bed. It's past midnight."   
  
Aunt Syl and Uncle Krit left the room and Aunt Max gave her niece an oversized shirt to change into. "I don't sleep," said Maxie stubbornly.   
  
"Maybe not, but you're going to get upset if you keep listening to us talking. Now, TRY to sleep, aiight?" asked Aunt Max.   
  
"Aiight," echoed Little Max. It sounded a little odd with her accent. Aunt Max left the room, turning off the light.   
  
She lay there in silence, listening to her uncle and aunts talking in the kitchen. She could hear them perfectly.   
  
"Nice going, Syl."  
  
"Why d'you think Jace never told her about Manticore?"  
  
"Oh, yeah, Krit. You saw how she flipped out when I mentioned her mother dying. How do you think she'd take the truth? 'I was created in a test tube and spent the first nineteen years of my life as a teenage transgenic killing machine-'"  
  
"Be quiet, she'll hear you!"  
  
Max's eyes widened and she ducked under the blankets on the sofa. She didn't want to listen any more.   
  
The next few days passed without many events. Aunt Syl and Uncle Krit seemed ashamed and tried to make peace by visiting and staying with Max when her aunt went out mysteriously. They were teaching her how to play poker. Little Max was getting rather good at it.   
  
Maxie was winning when her Aunt Max burst in on the fourth day of Little Max's stay. "I've got a lead at last. Max- is this your mother?" She handed Little Max a large computer printout that looked like a scene from a security video.   
  
The picture showed a woman with dark hair being ushered from a van by two men. A man wearing glasses was walking ahead of them, talking into a mobile phone. They were heading toward a door with two more men who looked like security guards. She studied the picture intently.   
  
"It's my mama!" cried Max in surprise. "I'm positive that's her!"   
  
"Whoa, Jace grew up hot for a colonel's pet," remarked Uncle Krit. Aunt Syl elbowed him hard in the ribs.  
  
"That's our first stop, then. But it's two days' journey from here..." mused Aunt Max, gazing at her niece.   
  
"Leave her with Original Cindy," suggested Aunt Syl.   
  
"Good idea. Let's move out. Meet back here in half an hour," said Aunt Max in military tones. Aunt Syl and Uncle Krit left abruptly, leaving their cards on the floor where the three of them had been playing.   
  
"Aunt Max, I want to come. I have to see my mama," said Max decisively. She couldn't quite voice or comprehend the weak-kneed relief she was experiencing that her mother obviously hadn't been killed.   
  
Aunt Max turned around from packing and gave her niece a rather catlike stare. "Are you crazy?" she asked quietly. "This place we're going is a government-run testing lab. It's going to be swarming with guards. The only people who'll have a hope of infiltrating it will be people with special training and abilities. People like me and Krit and Syl. You are gonna stay here with Original Cindy and let us handle this, OK?"  
  
"But-"   
  
"You'll see your mama in a few days, I promise," said Aunt Max.   
  
Little Max sighed. At least she knew her mama wasn't dead- yet. But how would she be able to get through those next few days knowing that her mama was in some lab.   
  
Her Aunt Max called up Original Cindy, who was cool with looking after Maxie. She heard a van pulling into the alley next to the building, heard Aunt Max hanging up on OC- and had an idea.   
  
"Aunt Max, is it OK if I sleep in your room while you're away?" asked Little Max innocently.   
  
"Sure. Now, where'd I put my sector pass?"  
  
Little Max spied it lying on the counter and pocketed it. "Have you lost it, Aunt Max?"  
  
"I don't lose things. But... I could've sworn I'd put it on the counter."  
  
"I think I saw it on the bathroom sink, Aunt Max," suggested Max. "I'm gonna go and take a nap in your room."  
  
"If you want..." said Aunt Max, giving her a curious look. She shrugged and gave Max a proper hug. "You be good for Original Cindy, boo."  
  
"I will," said Little Max, watching Aunt Max leave the room. She quietly put the sector pass on the counter and slinked into Aunt Max's room.   
  
There wasn't much time. She snatched Jace's sweatshirt off the bed, hugging it quickly and pulling it on. She fished a piece of paper and a pen out of a cardboard box by the bed and scribbled.   
  
"Dear Original Cindy," she said as she scrawled the words. "This is Little Max. My aunt is too busy to write you a note, so she asked me to do it. She has decided to take me with her out of the city. Please do not call as the phone lines may be tapped. We will be back in a few days. Sincerely, Max Morales."  
  
Little Max fished a coil of nylon rope from under the bed after she left the note on Aunt Max's pillow. She opened the window and looked down at the van parked in the alley. She tied one end of the rope around the window frame and tossed the rope out the window, watching it unfurl.   
  
"I can't believe I'm doing this," muttered Little Max, tugging on the rope. It was secure.   
  
She climbed out of the window and began to climb down the rope. It was easily one of the most frightening and dangerous things Max had ever done. Her small hands clung at the rope and she shook all the way down.   
  
"I'm doing this for my mama," she told herself firmly, and felt her sneakers bump against the ground.   
  
The back doors of the van were open. She started running almost silently across the gravel and managed to scramble into the back.   
  
There were a lot of boxes and things in the back of the van. Through a screen behind the seat she could see Uncle Krit and Aunt Syl, waiting for Aunt Max to come.  
  
The back door of the van was slammed. Aunt Max suddenly scrambled into the window seat, buckling her seatbelt.   
  
"This is just like old times," said Aunt Max readily.  
  
"Is Max all good?" asked Uncle Krit.   
  
"Sweet kid," mused Aunt Syl.  
  
"Yeah. I'm getting Jace back for her, I swear. This isn't gonna be Tinga all over again."  
  
"We'll see," said Aunt Syl.   
  
As Max sat silently in the back of the van, as the engine roared in her ears and she knew she was on the road again... she prayed. Mama, we're coming for you, she pleaded inside her head. Hold on.   
  
Her Aunt Syl's words repeated inside Little Max's mind, though, until they lost all meaning.   
  
"We'll see."  
  
We'll see.  
  
We'll see...  
  
* * *   
  
DISCLAIMER: 'Dark Angel' belongs to Fox and James Cameron. Not me. So don't sue.   
  
NOTE: One reviewer asked, "... Max (Jace) is 10 right well you said Max (Guevara) was 20 when she opened the door shouldn't she be thirty?" I'm not sure if it was made certain, but as the main character is Little Max, when she estimates that Max Guevara is in her late twenties, Max G. is actually about twenty-nine or thirty, seeing as she was about nineteen or twenty when Little Max was actually born. Ya see, this is supposed to be a ten-year-old guessing. I hope that answers your question.  
  
I'm predicting that there isn't gunna be much Joshua or Alec. 'Cause you see, I'm only up to 'Hit A Sista Back', so I've never seen them and can't really write a good characterisation of them. On a similar note, I'm sorry if my Krit and Syl characterisations aren't in character, but I've never seen them and have gotten my characterisations from fanfics. Feel free to point out problems to me and I'll try my best to fix them.   
  
Thank you to all the people who've reviewed this. Expect the next chapter very soon! 


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